MI5 warned U.S. about Detroit airline bomber in 2008

British intelligence agencies had given the United States information about the Detroit plane bomber long before his attempted attack, Downing Street claimed yesterday.

The name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was included in a dossier of people believed to have made attempts to deal with known extremists that was shared with American intelligence in 2008, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said.

Abdulmultallab was listed as having tried to contact radical Islamists while studying in London but was not singled out as a particular risk because he was ‘not radicalised until he left the UK in October 2008’, the spokesman added.

The disclosure is likely to deepen the growing rift with the White House over who knew what about the wannabe bomber and has the potential to deeply embarrass President Barak Obama.

The move could be seen as a British attempt to deny American claims that Britain has not done enough to fight homegrown extremists and that it has fostered terrorists.